The Inn at Little Washington is a luxury country

inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

and restaurant located in

Washington, Virginia The town of Washington, Virginia, is a historic village located in the eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park. The entire town is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district, Wa ...

. Patrick O'Connell and Reinhardt Lynch founded the Inn in a former garage in 1978. It has been a member of the

Relais & Châteaux Relais & Châteaux is an association of individually owned and operated luxury hotels and restaurants. The group currently has about 580 members in 68 countries on five continents. Predominantly represented in Europe, the association is grow ...

hotel group since 1987.

Awards and honors

The Inn has been featured in several national and international newspapers including ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. It was the first establishment to ever receive five

stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

for both its accommodations and its

cuisine A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, customs, and ingredients combine to ...

in the

Mobil Travel Guide Forbes Travel Guide (formerly known as Mobil Guide or Mobil Travel Guide) is a star rating service and online travel guide for hotels, restaurants and spas. In 2011, Forbes Travel Guide published its last set of guidebooks and on November 15, 201 ...

, a distinction that it still maintains. It repeated this feat by becoming the first restaurant/inn to receive five diamonds from the

AAA AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to: Airports * Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA) * Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA) Arts, entertainment, and me ...

for both its food and accommodations in 1989. The inn and restaurant have maintained that distinction through 2016. In 2018, the Inn received a coveted three-star rating from the

Michelin Guide The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin star (classification), stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The ac ...

. The restaurant received five

James Beard Foundation The James Beard Foundation is a New York City-based national non-profit culinary arts organization named in honor of James Beard, a prolific food writer, teacher, and cookbook author, who was also known as the "Dean of American Cookery." The prog ...

awards including those for ''Best Service'', ''Best Wine List'', ''Restaurant of the Year'', ''Best Chef in the Mid–Atlantic'' and ''Chef of the Year''. The ''

International Herald Tribune The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France for international English-speaking readers. It had the aim of becoming "the world's first global newspaper" and could fairly be said ...

'' rated it as one of the ''Top Ten Best Restaurants in the World''. The

Zagat Survey The ''Zagat Survey'', commonly referred to as Zagat (stylized in all caps; , ) and established by Tim and Nina Zagat in 1979, is an organization which collects and correlates the ratings of restaurants by diners. For their first guide, covering ...

for Washington, D.C. rated it number one in all categories for 14 consecutive years. Travel & Leisure Magazine has ranked the Inn as the number one hotel in the world for food, number 8 in the world, and number 2 in North America overall. The restaurant has been awarded

Wine Spectator ''Wine Spectator'' is an American lifestyle magazine that focuses on wine and wine culture, and gives out ratings to certain types of wine. It publishes 15 issues per year with content that includes news, articles, profiles, and general entertain ...

's "Grand Award" for the last 12 years. Other distinctions include

Cigar Aficionado ''Cigar Aficionado'' is an American magazine that is dedicated to enjoying the good life and the world of cigars. Published since September 1992, the magazine is known for its profiles on celebrities including Michael Jordan, Jack Nicholson, Th ...

's "Grand Cru" award for the restaurant's wine list, and the "Reader's Top Table" award in

Gourmet Gourmet (, ) is a cultural idea associated with the culinary arts of fine food and drink, or haute cuisine, which is characterized by refined, even elaborate preparations and presentations of aesthetically balanced meals of several contrasting, of ...

's ''Restaurant'' Issue. InnatLittleWashingtonshop

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, ...

once claimed, "For my money this little hotel provides the best overall dining experience I can remember in a long while, perhaps my best ever." The Inn's history was detailed in a 2010 article, stating that the Inn's staff "discreetly tries to detect and record the emotional state of each person in a dinner party on a scale of 1 to 10. Their goal is to get you up to at least a "9" before the long drive home. This simple rating system allows the staff at The Inn to make very subtle adjustments to service throughout the night—so that even someone who arrives for dinner in a serious funk will likely wind up walking on country air before the night is through."

Ownership

Though initially owned and operated by Patrick O'Connell and Reinhardt Lynch upon its 1978 opening, the Inn is no longer owned jointly by the former business and romantic partners. Their personal relationship deteriorated in 2006 and precipitated the business split. ''The Washington Post'' reported that O'Connell, the chef, took out a loan for $17.5 million in January 2007 in order to facilitate a buyout of Lynch and became sole owner of the establishment. The specific amount Lynch received was not disclosed.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Inn at Little Washington, The Restaurants in Virginia Washington, Virginia Buildings and structures in Rappahannock County, Virginia Restaurants established in 1978 1978 establishments in Virginia Tourist attractions in Rappahannock County, Virginia American companies established in 1978 James Beard Foundation Award winners Michelin Guide starred restaurants in the United States

Awards and honors

Ownership

See also

Notes

References

External links